


Forget Me Not

by LizEBoredom



Category: The Crown & the Flame (Visual Novels)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-08-08 02:35:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16420745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizEBoredom/pseuds/LizEBoredom
Summary: Raydan apologizes to Kenna in a unique way, reminding her why she fell for him in the first place.





	Forget Me Not

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: This fulfills a follower giveaway for @endlessflame (I finally finished it!) in which she requested Kenna x Raydan.

Queen Kenna was strolling the grounds at Stormholt, as she did many evenings of late. Her King was often away lately, attending diplomatic meetings regarding the rumors of uprisings in smaller settlements throughout the Five Kingdoms. Kenna hated when he was away; hated that she couldn’t be attending these meetings herself. They’d spent many a night arguing about it. Heated debates about her safety, and the safety of their unborn child. She was not far into her pregnancy, her belly barely showing the swell of their heir, but he was overprotective of her nonetheless. His words the same _, every time._

_“I will not risk you or our child. None of this means anything without you by my side, my Queen.”_

As she walked among the deciduous trees, through the flower gardens they’d planted their first months there as King and Queen, she felt a shift in the air. Among these flowers they’d planted in honor of those they’d lost, the air grew heavier, more fragrant. She often thought she could feel those she’d loved and lost here. Her mother, Leon, Gabriel…they were with her on this night, smiling down upon her as though blessing her reign, her union, her child. A gentle breeze stirred, warm against her skin, and a new scent wafted toward her through the air. Cloves, musk, lavender. A warm smile spread across her face. He was here.

He stepped out of the shadows of a tree nearby.

“My Queen.”

“My King.”

She paused only for a moment before rushing toward him, throwing her arms around his neck as he caught her in his embrace. She laughed lightly as he peppered her face with kisses.

“What are you doing back already? I thought you weren’t to return for another week.”

“I couldn’t remain away from you any longer,” he said. His soft gaze met hers as he pressed their foreheads together. “I missed you, my love.”

She pressed her lips to his, a searching, searing kiss that grew more fervent as he drew her closer to him.

“Raydan,” she said, her voice coming out somewhere between a whisper and a moan, “I’ve missed you, too. So much.”

He pulled away and gripped her hand, twining her fingers with his own. “Walk with me.”

She complied, following him deeper into the gardens. “How far are we going?”

He just grinned and kept walking. “Do you remember the night we met, Kenna?”

“How could I forget? You captured my attention during dinner with your insolence, my imagination with your flowers, and then you captured my heart with your kiss.”

He stopped, turning to face her. The warmth and love in his eyes overwhelmed her so much that when he asked her which she’d prefer, she didn’t immediately understand what was happening. When she caught on, realizing he was pointing at two flowers in the same way he had that first night they’d met in the gardens of Aurelia, she laughed. Quirking up an eyebrow, she simply asked, “This again? Are you going to tell my future, my King?”

He didn’t respond, simply sweeping his hand to point between two flowers: a yellow daffodil and a dark blue orchid. She smirked.

“I prefer the daffodil.”

“The yellow daffodil is a symbol of new beginnings and future success,” he said, stepping forward and placing a hand on her slightly swollen abdomen. “Funnily enough, my Queen also symbolizes these things to me.”

His nearness caused her pulse to quicken. Her lover, her King…the man who used to prefer to live in the shadows, but who had come to live in the light for her. She felt her heart swell with love for him, this man who’d seen so much pain in his life and yet still had the capacity to love so freely and so fiercely.

She closed the distance between them, capturing his lips again in a heated kiss. He pulled her against him again, twining his hands through her hair before dragging his hands down to her hips, kneading them. As they broke apart, she brought one hand up to twirl a lock of his beautiful hair in between her fingers. He brushed her cheek with his fingertip.

“My love, there was a reason I asked you out here.”

“Oh? It wasn’t just to get me alone?”

“Kenna, we were already alone. I need you to choose between these two flowers.”

He gestured between two flowers: a pink rose and a camellia. She thought about it…she wasn’t sure what he was up to, but the first time he’d done this it was a grand romantic gesture, and it was the first time he’d kissed her. The day she lost her heart to an Aurelian spy.

“The camellia.”

“Another fine choice, my Queen. This one means my destiny is in your hands.” He moved close again, brushing his thumb over her lower lip. His voice dropped lower, “Of course, I trust you know that by now.”

Her skin was heated and tingling at this small but intimate contact. She couldn’t stop the sharp intake of breath when he touched her. His pupils were dilated, his eyes nearly black. But still, he held back from her.

“Just one more choice, my love,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper, a soft caress. He pointed between two more flowers. An acacia and a heliotrope. She didn’t hesitate, choosing the heliotrope. A wide grin played on his face.

“And that one, Kenna…that one means eternal love.”

She said nothing, her eyes merely searching his face for his next move. He moved his hand to cup her cheek. “Kenna, my love for you is eternal. I held no hope the night we met in Aurelia that what was between us would ever be more than the hope of becoming your lover. Dancing with you in the streets, fighting alongside you, watching you take back your kingdom, I knew you were destined for greatness. The gulf between us was so wide…”

“Raydan…”

He shook his head, raising a hand to stop her so he could continue. “Kenna, that you chose me of all people…knowing you had your choice of anyone to be your King and that you yet chose a low-born spy from Abanthus…you’ve changed my life in ways I never believed possible. I am yours. I have always been yours, and I always will be, in this and every life.”

He grabbed her hand again, pulling her further along the path. She gasped when she saw what he’d done. There was a small feast laid out, candles and lanterns lit along the clearing.

“Raydan?”

“Kenna, that night in the garden, I could never have hoped for everything we have now. As I said on our wedding day, before I met you I was half a man. With you, I am whole. I hate being away from you so often, especially in your current state, and I don’t want to keep fighting with you, my love.”

He presented a bouquet full of the flowers she’d chosen, daffodils, camellias, and heliotropes. She knew better now than to ask how he’d done it. The man had such skills of stealth that she couldn’t wrap her mind around how he did most of what he did.

“Forgive me, my Queen?”

She looked into his eyes, hoping to convey the sincerity in what she was about to say. Never once since returning from Azura’s side had he made any transgression that would require her forgiveness. Never once had she doubted him.

“My King, there is nothing to forgive.”


End file.
